SSRG International Journal of Humanities and Social Science (SSRG-IJHSS) volume 2 Issue 3 May to June 2015

Village Reconstruction Model: as envisioned by Sri

Aurobindo
Prof. Debashri Banerjee
Assistant Professor & Head, Dept. of Philoophy
Chatra R.P. College, Bankura, West Bengal, India
Abstract
In this present article we have to search for
the notion regarding Village Reconstruction
as conceieved by Sri Aurobindo. He was
mainly known to be a great yogi and
profound mystic whose concepts of yoga was
much discussed than his other notions. But
astonishingly like all other contemp orary
thinkers of his time, e.g. Tagore, Gandhi etc,
Sri Aurobindo was also not reluctant to
develop the life-structure of the villages and
villagers. This theory concerning Palli
Unnayan
or
Village
Reconstruction,
according to Sri Aurobindo, is thought to be
a part of National Self-Help programmes
taken at hands by the Indian political leaders
at the time of 1905. And it was preached by
him very clearly and distinctly as he thought
National Self-Development program is an
intrinsic part of Indian politics o r Swaraj.
National Self-Development scheme is useless
unless it could be used to advance the daily
life-structure of each and every Indian
villagers.
Key Words:
Sri Aurobindo, Village Reconstruction, National SelfDevelopment scheme, Indian politics, Swaraj.
INTRODUCTION:
Village reconstruction is thought to be a part of
National self-help and National Self-development
programme. Now if we investigate properly, then we
could find out that the actual aim of the British rule
was to destroy the social strength of India. How this
foreign rule gradually destroyed Indian social lifestructure, is vividly depicted in Sri Aurobindos own
writings the Village samiti is the seed of

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Swarajwhen a nation is in a natural condition,

growing from within and existing from within and in
its own strength, then it develops its own centres and
correlates them according to its own needs. But as
soon as for any reason this natural condition is
interrupted and a foreign body draws to itself all the
sources of nourishment and the natural centres,
deprived of their sustenance, fail and disappear. It is
for this reason that foreign rule can never be for the
good of a nation, never work for its true progress and
life, but must always work towards its disintegration
and deathWe in India had our own instruments of
life and growth; we had the self-dependent village;
we had the Zamindar as the link between the village
units and the central governing body and the central
governing body itself was one in which the heart of
the nation beat. All these have been either destroyed
or crippled by the intrusion of a foreign organism. If
we are to survive as a nation we must restore the
centres of strength which are natural and necessary to
our growth, and the first of these, the basis of all the
rest, the old foundation of Indian life and the secret of
Indian vitality was the self-dependent and selfsufficient village organism. If we are to organise
Swaraj we must base it on the village.1 In this above
citation from Sri Aurobindo we become aware of the
fact that villages are considered as the basis of
spreading swaraj among common Indian people.
STEPS OF VILLAGE RECONSTRUCTION:
Hence for the revival of India from the political
slavery of British rule Sri Aurobindo dreamt of
reconstructing our villages. Now what are the steps of
village reconstruction? There must remain some
necessary steps in this regard. To find out them again
we have to look into Sri Aurobindo. The villages of
1

Sri Aurobindo, Bande Mataram, Palli Samiti, p. 884-885

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SSRG International Journal of Humanities and Social Science (SSRG-IJHSS) volume 2 Issue 3 May to June 2015

Indian territory must not be considered as selfsufficient in themselves, but as living within a
common group for common purposes. Each group
again must be the part of the district, each district
must live as a subordinate part of the province, and
the province in its turn that of the country. This is the
actual plan of reconstruction included into National
Self-develepoment programme in India. It is known
to be a famous Apex system of National Selfdevelopment system. Villages are the core area
without whose development the advancement of the
entire Indian territory seems quite impossible. To
make it a healthy growth and not an artificial
construction we must begin at the bottom and work to
the top of the apex. The cell-life of the village must
be healthy and developed for the national body to be
healthy and developed. Swaraj begins from the
village.2 Thus it seems from Sri Aurobindos socialpolitical thesis that villages remain as the basis of an
entire nation, so that we have to raise the cry for
Swaraj from the villages.

Figure/Picture: Village to Nation

Village

District

Province

Nation

The Apex System of National Self-Development

Scheme

In Gandhi and Tagore, we also find out the somewhat

similar explanation about the village reconstruction
scheme or palli unnanayan parikalpona.
GANDHIS VILLAGE RECONSTRUCTION:
Actually Gandhi gave practical explanation of how to
reconstruct a village thoroughly. Gandhi vividly
demonstrated the true nature of self-sufficient village
communities by mentioning My [Gandhis] idea of
village Swaraj is that it is a complete republic.Thus
every villages first concern will be to grow its own
food crops and cotton for its cloth. It should have a
reserve for its cattle, recreation and playground for
adults and children. Then if there is more land
available, it will grow useful money crops, thus
excluding Ganja, tobacco, opium and the like. The
village will maintain a village theatre, school and
public hall. It will have its own waterworks ensuring
clean water supply. This can be done through
controlled wells or tanks. Education will be
compulsory up to the final basic course. As far as
possible every activity will be conducted on the cooperative basis. There will be no castes such as we
have today with their graded un-touchability. Nonviolence with the technique of Satyagraha and nonco-operation will be the sanction of the village
community. There will be a compulsory service of
village guards who will be selected by rotation from
the register maintained by the village. The
government of the village will be conducted by the
Panchayat of five persons annually elected by the
adult villagers, male and female, possessing
minimum prescribed qualifications. These will have
all the authority and jurisdiction required. Since there
will be no system of punishments in the accepted
sense, this Panchayat will be the legislature, judiciary
and executive combined to operate for its year of
office. Any village can become such a republic today
without much interference, even from the present
Government, whose sole effective connection with
the neighbouring villages and the centre if any 3. This
is the purpose of Gandhis creation of Village
Government.

Sri Aurobindo, Bande Mataram, Palli Samiti, p. 885

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Shriman Narayan, the Selected Works of Mahatma

Gandhi, The Voice of Truth, Vol. 6, p. 345-346

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SSRG International Journal of Humanities and Social Science (SSRG-IJHSS) volume 2 Issue 3 May to June 2015

TAGORES VILLAGE RECONSTRUCTION:

We also find out the Rural Reconstruction model
even in the writings of Tagore. His familiarity was as
a renowned poet, but he was also considered as one
of the pioneer of rural development programme. He
started rural reconstruction project at Sriniketan in
1921 aiming to make villagers self-reliant and able to
use all rural resources fully. Tagore realized that this
problem of rural reconstruction were manifold and it
was co-related with health, economy, education etc.
essential parts, and these parts are as well as interlinked with each other. The objectives of the
programme, in the words of Elmhirst depicted as
follows from the outset, we had two main
objectives, to survey the economic, social and
scientific needs of the cultivator in his home, village
and fields, and secondly to carry out our own
laboratory experiments in health, education, craft,
cultivation and animal husbandry 4 . Accordingly
Tagore laid emphasis on economical background of
villagers. Regarding economic development Tagores
aspiration was to make the peasants self-developed
and he truly realized that economic advancement
should be done on the scientific ground. In this
procedure, he considered education as one of the
important corollaries, because the educational
development of rural children remains as the
foundation of the rural reconstruction programme.
Without proper education nobody can be able to
realize the essentiality of the village reconstruction
procedure. And the village welfare department of the
institute [Sriniketan] from the very beginning took
the programme of health and sanitation in the
surrounding villages. In the year 1929, the institute
treated 6760 patients. 5 Tagore firmly believed that
poverty, disease, depopulation, joylessness and
backwardness of rural area could be removed only
through co-operative efforts of village reconstruction.
In this regard, we can discover his theory is quite bit
similar with that of Gandhi.
4

Elmhirst, Leonard K., Poet and Plowman, Santiniketan,

Calcutta: 1961, p. 582
5

Lal, Premchand, Reconstruction and Education in Rural

India, London: George Allen and Unwin, 1932, p. 78

PART OF SELF-DEVELOPMENT SCHEME:

AUROBINDO VS. GANDHI:
Thus village reconstruction is one of the important
organizations of National Self-help movement. For
the development of a strong nation, the village also
has to be developed. So village samiti appears as an
indispensable
instrument
of
the
National
development procedure. What is the process of the
so-called development of Palli Samiti? In its answer
we have to again mention about Sri Aurobindo. We
have to set up village schools in which our children
will grow up as good citizens and patriots to live for
their country and not for themselves. We have to take
up the control of the administration of justice, of selfprotection, of village sanitation, of small local public
works etc in small scales, so that the life of the
village may again be self-reliant and self-sufficient.
Self-help and self-dependence, the first conditions of
Swaraj must depend for their proper working upon
the village Samiti.6 Hence in the social aspect, swaraj
becomes equivalent with the idea of gram swaraj. In
this regard Sri Aurobindos thesis became somewhat
similar with that of Gandhi.
TWO
NECESSITIES
OF
VILLAGE
RECONSTRUCTION: AUROBINDOS VIEW:
Hence we could discover two such necessities of
village reconstruction as following Sri Aurobindo.
The first one is, for the true attainment of Swaraj, we
must awake the political sense of the masses. In this
endeavor, the reconstruction programme seems
mandatory, as it will help to develop the lives of the
villagers. Thus we should start our mission of
political reconstruction from the grass-root level, i.e.
the villages. In a democratic state the villages remain
as the core of the nation and without the development
of rural masses, the development of urban people as
well as that of the entire nation seems impossible.
Without evoking the political sense of common
masses, the dream of attaining Swaraj cannot be
fulfilled at all. And Palli Samiti is alone compatible
in work of evoking the political sense of rural India.
The work of the village Samiti will be to make the
masses feel Swaraj in the village, Swaraj in the
6

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Sri Aurobindo, Bande Mataram, Palli Samiti, p. 886

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SSRG International Journal of Humanities and Social Science (SSRG-IJHSS) volume 2 Issue 3 May to June 2015

nation. They cannot immediately rise to the

conception of Swaraj in the nation; they must be
trained to it through the perception of Swaraj in the
village. The political education of the masses is
impossible unless you orgainse the village Samiti. 7
Actually Sri Aurobindos main intention was to make
India as the spiritual guide of other nations. And for
doing this, Indias political mastery seems very much
essential. However for making a whole nation
politically developed, we have to develop the
political sense of the masses. Most people of a nation
reside in villages, so we should develop the political
sense of the villagers at first of all. By the
improvement of village life-structure, and then by the
mandatory advancement of that of cities, we can be
able to develop the life-structure of the entire India.
Hence the development of Palli Samiti remains as an
indispensable part of Indias political advancement.
The second necessity is this reconstruction
of village Samiti will be helpful enough to destroy
the social differences between Hindu and Muslim
races. It also seems helpful in uniting them not only
from the political stand-point, but also from the
bottom of their heart. The foreign rule truly destroyed
this so-desired Hindu-Muslim unity as it conceived
this one as a great threat against its rule of two
decades over India. The ancient Hindu rule, even the
Muslim eras were different from this British era not
only in their thought and culture, but also on its
nature. The Hindu and even the Muslim rajas and
jamindars, in the ancient time, felt themselves as
parts of the ruled persons and so mutual love, trust
and worship sustained between both the ruler and the
ruled. They strictly maintained the unity between
both the Hindu and the Muslim these two completely
separate sects as it seemed mandatory for their selfpreservation. But the foreigners advocate diversity
between these two sects, so that they will become
powerless by constant fighting and quarrelling among
them and never could even try to preach for the
necessary political liberty. Sri Aurobindo very wisely
advocated the importance of Palli Samiti in this
regard. In his view, it will destroy the aloofness, the
separateness of our lives and bring us back the sense
of community, the habit of mutual assistance and
7

Ibid, p. 886-887

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mutual beneficence. It will restore the lost sense of

brother hood. In this way, the old unity of our lives
will be restored and the basis of Swaraj will have
been laid in the tie which binds together the hearts of
the people of both these two sects. 8 Thus by
spreading communal love by sharing every work,
every happiness, every custom little bit with each
other, the Hindu-Muslim unity could be achieved.
And in this above way, when religious as well as
social unity can be attained properly, then the
attainment of the so-called political unity of entire
India cannot remain far behind.
NEED OF VIILAGE SAMITI FORMATION:
Formation of Village Samiti is therefore urgently
necessary in the view of Sri Aurobindo. Village
Samitis are, therefore, conditions to be fulfilled for
the achievement of Swaraj or political freedom.
Because for gaining the political freedom of India,
the arousal of political sense among common masses
along with the most desired and even the most
controversial Hindu-Muslim unity seem mandatory.
And Palli Samitis are the criterion to make these two
essential goals possible. Hence for attaining Swaraj,
we need to advance our national self-help or national
self-development programmes along with our ongoing national movements. Thus the formation of
Palli Samitis must remain as our practice of Swaraj.
In the Kishoregung Speech (Kishoregung area is
situated in Mymensingh district, East Bengal) Sri
Aurobindo ordered the entire Bengal to guide entire
India in this political endeavor.9
RELATION OF VILLAGE
AUROBINDOS VIEW:

&

NATION:

Now, in this context, we can search for the answer of

the stated question what is the relation between a
nation and its constituent, i.e. the villages? Actually
the national life cannot proceed towards a glorifying
future without the advancement of its rural life. In the
article named Back to the Land Sri Aurobindo
clearly depicted that It is an ascertained principle
8

Sri Aurobindo, Bande Mataram, Palli Samiti, p. 887888

9

Sri Aurobindo, Speeches, p. 69

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SSRG International Journal of Humanities and Social Science (SSRG-IJHSS) volume 2 Issue 3 May to June 2015

of national existence that only by keeping possession

of the soil can a nation persist; the mastery of the
reins of government or the control of the trade and
wealth of a country, does not give permanence to the
people in control. They reign for a while and then the
virtue departs out of them and they wither or pass
away and another takes their place; but they tillers of
the soil, ground down, oppressed, rack-rented,
miserable, remain, and have always the chance of the
day overthrowing their oppressors and coming by
their own. When a small foreign oligarchy does the
trading and governing and a great indigenous
democracy the tilling of the soil, it is safe to prophesy
that before many generations have passed the
oligarchy of aliens will be no more and the
democracy of peasants will still be in possession10.
Thus the development of palli samiti or village
reconstruction scheme stood as the essential social
ingredients of the nationalist leaders after 1905.
Actually when we have to make our nation politically
free, then the freedom of social aspects of the nation
is also mandatory. The development of human health,
sanitary system etc are also tremendously necessary
to use the self-help scheme of politics. Hence for the
total advancement of the national life, the
development of human lifes every aspect, whether
small or big, was given equal importance by the
nationalist leaders. In this way, it became an essential
tool in Indian politics after 1905. Sri Aurobindo also
took the village reconstruction scheme as one way to
achieve Indias freedom from social ignorance and
means of social reconstruction after becoming free
from foreign domination. Sadly due to the lack of
proper interest in developing Indian villages after the
Indian independence on 1947, we are suffering till
now. If we can follow the concepts of Sri Aurobindo,
Tagore or Gandhi, at least even partly, then India will
surely be socially and economically grown like other
developed countries, e.g. Japan, China etc, of the
third world.

Reference
Sri Aurobindo, Bande Mataram, Sri
Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, 1972
(Fifth Impression 1997).
2. Sri Aurobindo, On Nationalism, Sri
Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, 1986.
3. Sri Aurobindo, Speeches: on Indian
Political and National Education, Sri
Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, 1922 (7 th
Edition, 2005).
4. Sri Aurobindo, The Ideal of Karmayogin, Sri
Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, 1918.
5. Chodhury, Bhudeb (eds), Tagore Studies
1969, Tagore Research Institute, 1969.
6. Tagore, Rabindranath, The Religion of Man,
Visva-Bharati
Publishing
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Calcutta, 2000 (Reprinted 2008).
7. Elmhirst, Leonard K., Poet and Plowman,
Santiniketan, Calcutta: 1961, p. 582
8. Narayan, Shriman (eds.), The Selected
Works of Mahatma Gandhi, [vol. six, The
Voice of Truth], Navajivan Publishing
House, Ahmedabad, 1968. (4th Edition,
1997)
9. V. Geetha, Soul Force: Gandhis Writings
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Thought of Sri Aurobindo Ghosh 18931910, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mumbai,
2000.
11. Chaudhuri, Ranjit, Fragments of Gandhian
Mind: Some Essays on Gandhian Thought,
Progressive Publishers, Kolkata, 2002.
12. Lal, Premchand, Reconstruction and
Education in Rural India, London: George
Allen and Unwin, 1932.
1.

10

Sri Aurobindo, Bande Mataram, Back to the Land, p.

732

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